Often it can be desirable to replace lost, missing, injured, or diseased teeth using dental devices. Prosthetic dental devices can include dental implants, which can be inserted into the mandible or maxilla of a patient, and abutments, which can be attached to the implant to serve as a mount for a prosthetic tooth, and provisional and temporary devices, which can be used during the healing process.
The dental implant can be threaded into a bore which can be drilled into the patient's mandible or maxilla at an edentulous site. Over a period of several months, the patient's jaw bone grows around the implant to securely anchor the implant in the surrounding bone, a process known as osseointegration. The implant provides an anchoring member for a dental abutment, which, in turn, provides an interface between the implant and a dental restoration. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,989,027 and 8,075,312 discuss dental implants.